Leadership Provides Purpose, Direction & Takes Action

Just like the poem,Three Blind Mice, many businesses don?t know what true leadership is all about. A person sent me the following comments:

?I’m still struggling with the lack of “alleged” leadership traits in many executives. How do they achieve executive positions? Why don’t they seek out training to develop/enhance their leadership skills? Why do they assume that their subordinates need training but they don’t? What actually is the essence of leadership? How can we teach executives to think strategically, to plan, to envision and to leave operational decisions to managers? Any thoughts??

Sad to say, but I hear this comment far too often. Sounds like this person is working for a person who needs a few lessons on leadership. True leadership is about taking people to a place they wouldn’?t go to by themselves. Good leaders don’t merely supervise; they create a sense of purpose and direction for those they lead. After holding leadership positions and teaching leadership classes for 24 years, I am beginning to believe that some people have a natural ability to lead, have a passion, a burning desire to make a difference. Those are the people I want to work for.

A strong company is one that has leaders spread all across the company, not just at the top. The business world today needs both good leaders and good managers. However, because of the rapid change occurring in industry today, a company needs far more leaders, not more managers.

Time after time again, businesses put the wrong person in charge. Unintentionally they reward a ?don?t rock the boat? mentality. Conformity and status quo are the first steps leading down the staircase of a business disaster. This is partly the reason Sears, Zayres, IBM and Howard Johnson?s et al. got in trouble. A major part of being a good leader is making people uncomfortable, uncomfortable with conformity that is.

All of us in leadership positions need to evaluate our actions. Are you providing a positive example for others to follow? Are you leading or managing? Are you effective at what you do? Maybe its time for a self-assessment? Zig Ziglar says, ?”A check-up from the neck-up.”? Look at these leadership self-assessments to give you an idea of where you stand and where your managers stand as effective leaders.